Will the Riciculous Fees on Music/Sports Tickets End? Trump Loses Evangelicals?, Eminem ina GTA Movie? The Yellowstone Universe Expands (The Five for 11/19/22)
Hey, welcome to The Five.
Sorry this one is a day late…let’s dive into Culture & Commentary.
[one]
Donald Trump is making his third run at the White House…but he may be lacking a key demographic who passionately supported him in 2016 and 2020: Evangelical Christians.
Evangelical figures who previously supported Donald Trump are backing off now that he’s announced his third bid for the presidency.
“Donald Trump can’t save America,” Mike Evans told The Washington Post. “He can’t even save himself.”
Evans was part of a group of evangelicals who met with Trump at the White House, and at one point gave him an award.
Now, he says he’s done with Trump.
“He used us to win the White House. We had to close our mouths and eyes when he said things that horrified us,” Evans told the newspaper. “I cannot do that anymore.”
Robert Jeffress, one of Trump’s evangelical advisers during the 2016 campaign and a longtime supporter, said he’s not ready to endorse him again.
“The Republican Party is headed toward a civil war that I have no desire or need to be part of,” Jeffress told Newsweek, adding that he would “happily” support Trump again if he wins the nomination.
That’s not a given, considering Trump’s plunging poll numbers among Republican voters. Jeffress also seemed to subtweet Trump on the day of his 2024 announcement by urging people to buy Mike Pence’s book:
Pence apparently wants to square off with the 45th POTUS in the primaries…for what purpose, I’m not sure, as the 2024 Republican Primary seems to be DeSantis’ race to lose, according to a recent YOUGOV poll.
Still, two years is a REALLY LOOOONG TIME in politics, so who knows what can happen in the next 23 months.
[two]
Ticketmaster, the monopoly that ruins pretty much everything in entertainment (music, sports, theater) came up against an unlikely cadre of critics this week.
Senator Amy Klobuchar criticized Ticketmaster in an open letter to its CEO, saying she has “serious concerns” about the company’s operations following a service meltdown Tuesday that left Taylor Swift fans irate.
In the letter to CEO Michael Rapino, the Democrat from Minnesota and chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, wrote that complaints from Swift fans unable to buy tickets for her upcoming tour, in addition to criticism about high fees, suggests that the company “continues to abuse its market positions.”
“Ticketmaster’s power in the primary ticket market insulates it from the competitive pressures that typically push companies to innovate and improve their services. That can result in the types of dramatic service failures we saw this week, where consumers are the ones that pay the price,” Klobuchar wrote.
Ticketmaster and Live Nation, the country’s largest concert promoter, merged about a decade ago. Klobuchar noted that the company at the time pledged to “develop an easy-access, one-stop platform” for ticket delivery. On Thursday, the senator told Rapino that it “appears that your confidence was misplaced.”
“When Ticketmaster merged with Live Nation in 2010, it was subject to an antitrust consent decree that prohibited it from abusing its market position,” Klobuchar wrote. “Nonetheless, there have been numerous complaints about your company’s compliance with that decree.”
Independent of Taylor-Swift-ticket-gate, DIY country superstar Zach Bryan (who’s in The Five pretty much every week—hey, I don’t create the news, I just report) trashed the ticketing platform.
Hours later, Freshman Congresswoman AOC, who really likes retweets, appears to have jumped on Bryan’s bandwagon.
Later, Bryan seemed to clarify that he will avoid working with the ticketing giant in the future.
As much as I’d love to see real change take place, the reality is that Bryan will either have to
A). do what The Clash once did in NYC and play small venues 10+ days in a row in the same city to accomodate his fans
or
B). Continue to play ball with Ticketmaster, if he wants to play historic venues like Colorado’s Red Rocks, which Bryan recently played in the middle of a snowstorm.
While I disagree with AOC on most things, I’d love to see the NYC rep get serious legislation moving on this one…but considering an independent study by Vanderbuilt University and the University of Virginia found her to be the least effective member of Congress in 2021…
…so I’m not holding my breath.
For now, the ticket monopoly remains in place.
[three]
After the critically acclaimed and uber popular 8 Mile, Eminem almost starred in a Grand Theft Auto movie, based on the popular video game series.
"This was just after three [released]," Ewing said, "And I think at that point it was still in Sam's mind that it might be something that they wanted to do."
Ewing revealed an unnamed L.A. producer offered $5 million for the rights to the movie starring Eminem, with Top Gun director Tony Scott set to shoot film. Ewing said the creators eventually shut down the idea.
"At that point," Ewing continued, "they withdrew from any conversation about making a film when they realized the media franchise they had was bigger than any movie that was going on at the time."
If you’re wondering where the state of media is at…there it is right there.
Video games are too big too bother with theatrical release movies.
[four]
While the main Yellowstone series is setting new records for live viewing (12.1 million people stayed home to watch the season 5 premier Sunday night), the next spinoff of the Dutton story, which this teaser just revealed will span from WWI to Prohibition, starts on 12/18 on Paramount+.
Harrison Ford (Star Wars, Indiana Jones) and Hellen Mirren (The Queen, Hitchcock) are seriously heavy hitters to come to a streaming-only show, which continues writer/creator Taylor Sheridan’s hot streak, which now encompasses Three Dutton-focused shows, the prison drama Mayor of Kingstown and the “Sopranos in Oklahoma” project, Tulsa King, starring Sylvester Stallone.
Sheridan has created an MCU-style universe of gritty landscapes and salt-of-the-earth characters.
In my opinion, he’ll be remembered as a generational talent.
Yellowstone did more than just revive the modern western. It ushered in a new era of the everyman show…after decades of dramas set in New York or LA…Sheridan is creating in, and for, the American heartland.
[five]
It’s rare that I see a trailer, have no idea what the movie is about and say “heck yes, I want to see that.”
It’s even more rare for me to get very excited about such obvious Oscar bait (the self-serious movies that are made forawards season, and usually…very dull and with little plot).
But Empire of Light is different. It’s set in 1980’s England and is about…I dunno, restoring a movie theater or something?
But Sam Mendes (1917, Skyfall) is directing and Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails) and Atticus Ross are doing the score—the pair did the music for Gone Girl and The Social Network, two of my favorite flicks of the 2010’s.
Netflix appears to be ready to take on the smash success of military thrillers/whodunnits like Reacher and The Terminal List (both huge hits for Amazon Prime Video) with The Recruit, focusing on a very not-James-Bond lawyer/spy guy (he prefers White Claw to Martinis) caught up in an international conspiracy.
Season 1 drops 12/16…and it’s high on my watchlist.
MUSIC/MY PICK
I haven’t heard of Apollo Brown before this week, and usually I live with an album for a bit longer before giving a full-on endorsement…but the Chicago MC turned in one of the best hip hop albums to come from the Windy City since the "Golden Age” of the early aughts (think Kanye’s College Dropout, Common’s Be, Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor).
Until the next one,
-sth